Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself, in the possibility of control o...ver what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Good and evil are essential differences of the act of the will. For good and evil pertain essentially to the will; just as truth a...nd falsehood pertain to the reason, the act of which is distinguished essentially by the difference of truth and falsehood (according as we say that an opinion is true or false.) Consequently, good and evil volition are acts differing in species.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Everybody has that thing where they need to look one way but they come out looking another way and that's what people observe. You... see someone on the street and essentially what you notice about them is the flaw. It's just extraordinary that we should have been given these peculiarities.... Something is ironic in the world and it has to do with the fact that what you intend never comes out like you intend it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Excellence or virtue is a settled disposition of the mind that determines our choice of actions and emotions and consists essentia...lly in observing the mean relative to us ... a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Aphorisms are essentially an aristocratic genre of writing. The aphorist does not argue or explain, he asserts; and implicit in hi...s assertion is a conviction that he is wiser and more intelligent than his readers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
But reason always cuts a poor figure beside sentiment; the one being essentially restricted, like everything that is positive, whi...le the other is infinite.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is one of those distinctions which is obvious, without being sharp or clear. It is obvious, and remains obvious, to every norma...l mind, although when we come to analyze it, we may not be able to rule a boundary line. It remains obvious, as the distinction between day and night remains obvious, though, when we begin to analyze that distinction, we come up against such refinements as dusk and twilight. There is more than one way of characterizing the difference. Perception is essentially a passive experience, something that happens to us; thinking is an active one, something that we do. Or if you don't like this distinction, because of refinements such as the "intentionality" which some have detected (rightly, I would say) in perception, or on the other hand because of the passivity of that uncontrolled type of thinking called "reverie," then thoughts are something that comes from within; perceptions something that comes from without.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Poetry is essentially the antithesis of Metaphysics: Metaphysics purge the mind of the senses and cultivate the disembodiment of t...he spiritual; Poetry is all passionate and feeling and animates the inanimate; Metaphysics are most perfect when concerned with universals; Poetry, when most concerned with particulars.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »